The invention relates to a thin woven, knitted or braided (knotted) textile fabric made from bundles of metal filaments. The fabric thus possesses successive meshes, mutually separated and delineated by these bundles. The invention also relates to a method for the manufacture of these sheets and the application thereof as a separation sheet for the shaping of glass plates in moulds.
Meshed metal fibre fabrics made from twisted filament or fibre bundles and having a thickness greater than 0.5 mm are known. The bundles must be twisted in order to enable them to be processed subsequently eg. on weaving, knitting or knotting machines without breaking.
If however, for the purpose of realising very thin sheets, very thin twisted bundles have to be used, it is difficult to avoid fibre breakages (during the weaving, knitting or braiding process), particularly on the outer surface of the bundles. The bundle surfaces thus attain a hairy appearance, making the surface of the fabric more or less rough.
It is also known, for example from WO 94/01372 from the applicant, to use meshed metal fibre sheets as separation sheets for the shaping of glass plates, such as vehicle windscreens, in moulds. In order to be able to realise an appropriate heat transfer during shaping, very thin sheets will preferably be used for certain types of windscreen. The high shaping temperature causes the glass surfaces to soften somewhat. The metal fibre separation sheets, which are located during shaping between the hard mould surface and the glass sheet, must however not impress their textile texture in, nor transfer it to the somewhat soft glass surface. In other words, the surface of the sheets must be relatively smooth (not hairy).